SUN VALLEY, CA—Hours after Twitter users noticed that the official John MacArthur account had publicly “liked” a Steven Furtick tweet, causing a firestorm of mockery and speculation, the Los Angeles-based pastor removed the like and issued a statement shifting blame to one of his staff members.

At approximately 2:00 a.m. on Tuesday morning, MacArthur’s account added a “like” to a tweet from Steven Furtick that asked the rhetorical question, “Have you gotten so familiar with your problems that you no longer see your potential?”

“It was a staffing issue, and it was inadvertent, it was a mistake, it was not a deliberate action,” MacArthur told reporters Tuesday. “There were a number of people on the team that have access to the account, and it appears that someone inadvertently hit the ‘like’ button.”

MacArthur claimed he “never looks at Furtick’s tweets” and is “absolutely disgusted” that an employee of his “would view repulsive content like borderline-prosperity-gospel, self-help theology coming from an unqualified preacher.”

“I did not have any relations on Twitter with that preacher,” MacArthur said sternly in a press conference. “The very idea that I would ever look at anything like that online is preposterous.”

At publishing time, a hacker had leaked John MacArthur’s iPhone contents, revealing the shocking information that he has listened to Hillsongs’ “Oceans” over 148 times over the past six months.

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